Drink Beer, Think Beer With John Holl

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Latest Episodes:

Ep. 51 - Zach Beckwith of Bend Brewing Co. Sep 23, 2020

Show notes

This is a special time of year on the beer calendar. It's fresh hop beer season and if you live in the Pacific Northwest you are likely enjoying pints of vibrantly hoppy ales. The rest of us are just dreaming of what could be.

Hard to define, difficult to describe, and a revelation each time, fresh hop beers are best experienced in person where the beers were made.

Zach Beckwith, the head brewer of Bend Brewing Co. has some thoughts on fresh hops and what is being done right, what could be better, and how we should approach each glass. He recently penned a column for Jeff Alworth's Beervana Blog, but goes into deeper details here.

He spoke to the show from the brewery in Bend, Oregon.

For more Drink Beer, Think Beer or to check out Beer Edge: The Newsletter for Beer Professionals, follow us on Twitter @thebeeredge and subscribe to our beer industry focused newsletter. There is more information, articles, and engaging content at Beer Edge.

Host: John Holl
Guest: Zach Beckwith
Tags: Beer, Craft Beer, IPA, Hops, Fresh Hops, Farming, Recipe Development, Oregon, Ales,

Ep. 50 - Nile Zacherle of Mad Fritz Beer Sep 16, 2020

Show notes

There is a lot going on out West right now, some of it good – like the hop harvest – and a lot of it bad, like the fires that are raging out of control. Napa Valley is often in the news when it comes to fires in California and while it is known for wine, there is also beer to be found.

Nile Zacherle of Mad Fritz Beer straddles both worlds. He is both a wine maker and a brewer and is thoughtful about both. What might be most enjoyable about his beers is that they live inside of specific style but still never fully let that define them.

This is thanks, in part, to his approach. He brews small, he brews with local ingredients whenever possible, and isn’t afraid to let the beer follow its own direction. It’s like a trust exercise.

He’s been busy during COVID-19 while the current batch of fires is not an immediate threat, the smell of smoke in the air is a reminder that there is always a worry. And so that’s where the show starts, with the worry that comes with being in a place that could be impacted.

Nile spoke to host John Holl from the brewery in California.

Host: John Holl
Guest: Nile Zacherle
Tags: Beer, Craft Beer, Lager, California, Wine, Napa Valley

Ep. 49 - Brienne Allan of Notch Brewing Sep 09, 2020

Show notes

Show notes from host John Holl:

"I love a good conversation over beer and these days it’s hard to do it in person, but it is alive online. One person I can always count on to get the brain cells working and to challenge the notions of beer is Brienne Allan, the production manager at Notch Brewing, in Salem Massachusetts.

She’s worked at the brewery for three years and handles a variety of roles and has been instrumental in getting some of the more beloved and esoteric lager projects off the ground an into production. She’s got a love of historical tradition of styles, technical knowledge, and worldly travels and revived the Pink Boots Society chapter in Massachusetts a few years back.

We get into all that and more in this conversation that bounced around topics quickly. She spoke to me from Notch, and I wanted to start off on a positive note."

Host: John Holl
Guest: Brienne Allan
Tags: Beer, Craft Beer, Lager, Pink Boots Society, Massachusetts

Ep. 48 - Alex Lovinggood of Barn Town Brewing Sep 02, 2020

Show notes

Alex Lovinggood of Barn Town Brewing has been in the beer business for less than a decade but has made a lasting impact wherever he has gone. He was a teacher and a bartender before he got into brewing. He started like so many others, as a volunteer washing kegs and learning the trade from time spent in various hands on experiences.

He worked at Temperance Brewing, Atlas (when it was called that), and later Brickstone, all in Illinois. He has been a major force behind The Festival of Wood and Barrel Aged Beer and worked to help grow and shape the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild.

Last November he moved a little bit west to Barn Town Brewing in West Des Moines, Iowa where he is now a brewer.

In this episode he talks about IPA, new styles of beer, food influences, festivals, and more.

Host: John Holl
Guest: Alex Lovinggood
Tags: Beer, Craft Beer, Pastry Sour, Hazy IPA, IPA, Iowa, Illinois

Ep. 47 - Jennifer Yuengling of D.G. Yuengling & Son Brewery Aug 26, 2020

Show notes

D.G. Yuengling & Son is the country’s oldest operating brewery, going back 191 years now.

It survived major events over the course of 6 generations, most notably Prohibition, and really hit its stride in the mid-1980s when Dick Yuengling Jr. purchased the brewery from his father and began making Yuengling Lager, which is the company’s flagship beer and accounts for 80% of overall volume.

As the brewery, often referred to as just the family last name, looks to its sixth generation it is Jennifer Yuengling, the Vice President of Operations, and her three sisters who are poised to take over the brand and continue the family tradition.

To stay competitive in a crowded beer marketplace she says innovation is key. The brewery has continued to release new brands and find new partnerships to stay top of mind with its customers across 22 states. Yuengling is also the country’s largest craft brewery, as designated by the Brewers Association, but Jennifer is more interested in using the word independent, something the whole company is proud of being, she says.

Jennifer spoke to the show from the brewery in Pennsylvania.

Host: John Holl
Guest: Jennifer Yuengling
Tags: Beer, Craft Beer, Lager, Hershey, Yuengling, Florida, Pennsylvania

Ep. 46 - Christopher Meyers of Crane Brewing Co. Aug 19, 2020

Show notes

From host John Holl: "Every once in a while a beer comes your way from an unfamiliar brewery and just blows you away. It’s one of the great things about having so many breweries in the country these days – there is a lot to discover.

A few months back I had a slew of beers from Crane Brewing Co. in Raytown, Missouri. The gose and Berliner Weiss were subtle, flavorful, mixed with all kinds of ingredients and layered with nuance that made me want to know more about where they came from.

So I called up Christopher Meyers, a co-founder of the brewery to talk about process, working with local farms, and their concept of 'tradition, evolving.'

He spoke to me from the brewery in Missouri."

Host: John Holl
Guest: Christopher Meyers
Tags: Beer, Craft Beer, Missouri, Lager, Fruit, Berliner Weisse, Gose, COVID-19

Ep. 45 - Ethan Cox of Community Beer Works Aug 12, 2020

Show notes

It really is a small world. Before Covid-19 sent us all into lockdown John Holl received an email from a listener who encouraged him to book Ethan Cox of Community Beer Works in Buffalo on the show.

Alex wrote in saying that “Ethan is a big part of the craft beer culture here in Buffalo and helped take a plucky little nanobrewery and turn it into a place that represents the neighborhood and the city that is very much on a hidden gem.”

So John did some digging and found out that Ethan is also a tireless advocate for New York Beer and the efforts that its guild is pushing to make it easier for breweries to do business, and the co-author of Buffalo Beer: The History of Brewing in the Nickel City published by History Press.

And it turns out, Ethan's sister lives in the same small town as John. So Ethan made the trip down to New Jersey ostensibly to see his sister, but managed to sneak away, douse himself in hand sanitizer, and share some beers in the back yard.

Host: John Holl
Guest: Ethan Cox
Tags: Beer, Craft Beer, New York, Pilsner, Fruit, Community, Buffalo, IPA, Pale Ale, Football, Travel, Barleywine

Ep. 44 - Garrett Oliver of the Brooklyn Brewery Aug 05, 2020

Show notes

Most people know Garrett Oliver as the globe trotting brewmaster of the Brooklyn brewery, but he is also an accomplished author, educator, and thought leader in the brewing space. His latest project is one that we can all get behind and support, it’s a foundation named after the late Michael Jackson, the writer.

Its mission is funding technical education and career advancement for black, indigenous, and people of color in the brewing and distilling industries.

This interview was originally recorded for an article that host John Holl was writing for Wine Enthusiast Magazine, but there was so much more in the talk that could ever make it onto the page that we’re sharing a slightly edited version of the conversation with you today.

Garrett spoke to the show from Brooklyn.

Host: John Holl
Guest: Garrett Oliver
Tags: Beer, Craft Beer, Michael Jackson, Diversity, Fundraising, Quality Control

This episode is sponsored by:

Beer Edge: The Newsletter for Beer Professionals

Help support journalism covering the beer industry by subscribing to the twice weekly newsletter. Learn more at our revamped website.

Ep. 43 - Lisa Allen of Heater Allen Brewing Jul 29, 2020

Show notes

This week's guest is Lisa Allen. She’s the head brewer of Heater Allen, the brewery her father started in 2007.

He lived the classic story of a homebrewer that went pro and decided to make the beers he wanted to drink. In a hoppy landscape his beers stood out in Oregon, even if you couldn’t get them too far from the brewery itself.

Lisa says she was fascinated by fermentation and brewing science from a young age but didn’t plan on joining her father’s business. Instead she went into wine making. But, as fate would have it, she would enter the brew house to help out when her father needed to recuperate from surgery a few years back and and she hasn’t left.

It has been to the great benefit of us all.

She spoke to me from the brewery in McMinnville, Oregon.

Host: John Holl
Guest: Lisa Allen
Tags: Beer, Craft Beer, Oregon, COVID-19, Pilsner, Hops

This episode is sponsored by:

Beer Edge: The Newsletter for Beer Professionals

Help support journalism covering the beer industry by subscribing to the twice weekly newsletter. Learn more at our revamped website.

Ep. 42 - Kim Sturdavant of Pacifica Brewery Jul 22, 2020

Show notes

Remember the Brut IPA? It was, for a shining moment, seemingly the hottest beer style in the country and then it went away.

The brewer credited with the style is Kim Sturdavant and he is our guest on the show today. From its origins, to its evolution ,and eventual death we cover the life cycle of a style.

What does the future hold for the style? Well, Sturdavant who is working at Pacifica Brewing does not currently have one on his board. So, that has to mean something.

Sturdavant spoke to the show from California.